


Xiuhan Drabble Challenge

by London9Calling



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Drabble Collection, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-23 12:09:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6116017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/London9Calling/pseuds/London9Calling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of Xiuhan drabbles prompted by the <a href="http://dailyxiuhanisms.tumblr.com/">Xiuhan Daily Drabble Challenge!</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prompt 1: Adventure Bound

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter consists of a drabble, inspired by the prompts at XDDC. Warnings will be added at the beginning of each chapter if applicable.

Title: Adventure Bound  
Length: 754 w.  
Prompt: [#1](http://dailyxiuhanisms.tumblr.com/image/139859510227)

[Read here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6095503)


	2. Prompt 2: For All to See

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minseok is having a terrible day, Luhan might make it better.

Title: For All to See  
Length: 957 w.  
Prompt: [#2](http://dailyxiuhanisms.tumblr.com/post/139918675092/2)

[Read Here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6101263)


	3. Prompt 3: Show Some Skin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luhan, master hitchhiker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ Prompt #3](http://dailyxiuhanisms.tumblr.com/post/139980991742/prompt-3-posted-1046-am-pst-gmt-8)

“What are you doing?!” Minseok looked down in horror. Luhan’s hand was on his thigh, pushing his shorts up a few inches, flashing a patch of pale skin.

“Hitchhiking.” Luhan stuck his thumb out, wagging it in the air for…no one to see.

They hadn’t seen a single car in the last half an hour, the country road seemingly abandoned by everyone but themselves and a few noisy squirrels.

“You really think that is going to work?” Minseok sighed at his best friend. He was tempted to smack Luhan’s hand away from his shorts. A flash of his thighs would likely cause the next car to speed up, not give them a ride to the next town down the road.

“Yeah. You are pretty hot, why wouldn’t this work?” Luhan stared down the long and winding road, hand still on Minseok’s leg.

“Stop it!” Minseok slapped Luhan’s hand away, stepping back a few feet as he let a loud groan escape his lips.

“Should I flash my legs?” Luhan asked, teasing the edge of his cargo shorts.

Minseok looked at their car, a Toyota Corolla with over 120 thousand miles and a flat tire. Why hadn’t they gotten a rental car like he had suggested? Luhan’s beat up maroon ride had given out two hours into their road trip, in probably the worst place it could die. There was no cell phone reception, the mountains blocking all wireless.

“No.” Minseok resigned himself to leaning against the car, watching Luhan jump around like a car would miss him if he didn’t keep moving. It was more likely Luhan would collapse on the side of the road without ever seeing a car.

“What if I take my shirt off?” Luhan asked, playing with the hem of his Metallica t-shirt, threatening to peel it off.

“NO!” Minseok screeched.

“Fine.” Luhan gave up his idea or stripping, putting all of his energy into holding his thumb out towards the desolate road.

Minseok let out a sigh of relief. The last time he saw Luhan without a shirt it hadn’t gone the way he wanted. Not at all. In fact it had been a disaster, complete with haphazard hickeys and a morning full of regret.

Not this time, he told himself. Not this time.

“We’re just friends,” Minseok mumbled.

“What?” Luhan asked, turning away from the road to give Minseok a wide eyed glance.

Minseok waved his friend off, flicking his hand back towards the road. Not this time. Definitely not this time.

 

 

 


	4. Prompt 4: Let us Love like Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pieces are impossible to pick up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt [#4](http://dailyxiuhanisms.tumblr.com/post/140038638137/4)  
> Warnings: Mentions of drug use

The scratch in his throat, the dry feeling, the horrible cough and the pounding headache.

“Min?”

He wasn’t there. It was a gamble if _he was ever there_.

Luhan stumbled from his bedroom, stepping over Jongdae’s girlfriend, a needle stuck in her arm. Breathing, twitching, and terribly alive, she was there but not there. Like a lot of people around them.

“Min?” He dragged his hand through his hair, looking left then right as he stared into the kitchen. Dishes and empty liquor bottles, takeout food containers, things that didn’t matter. “Min?”

The kitten, that little orange creature Jongin had dropped off, chirped and meowed and Luhan didn’t have time for that.

“Min?” The front door wasn’t locked, it swung open with the lightest touch.

The small garden, just outside the 12 square feet of paving stones. He wasn’t there. Parsley and weeds and the grandmother next door casting curious glances at a shirtless misfit standing outside calling for his boyfriend.

“Min?” He wasn’t out back or passed out near Baek’s rusted out Volkswagen. He wasn’t anywhere.

Eventually Luhan gave up searching, hunkering down to watch television with the girl who finally figured out how to pull the tiny metal stick from her vein.

“You think they know?” She asked, pushing the bowl of popcorn – the stale bowl of popcorn from a night forgotten – towards Luhan.

“Know what?” He would eat the whole bowl if given the chance.

“That none of us care.” She eschewed food for cigarettes, puffing away she tried to sound like she had learned something from the chaos she created, that she existed in. “That like, none of it really matters in the end.”

“Did you see Minseok? Did he leave?” Luhan didn’t care about pretentious intellectual bullshit. He cared about Minseok.

Wherever he had wandered off to. This time.

 


	5. Prompt 6: Why it Snows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minseok answers to the best of his ability. Warnings: Character death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Prompt #6.](http://dailyxiuhanisms.tumblr.com/post/140160156797/6)

**Warning! Character death**

 

 

“Dad?”

Minseok didn’t answer right away, which meant he had five seconds before he was inundated with “Dad, Dad, Dad! Dad, are you listening? DAD! DAD?”

“Yes. What?” Minseok turned the steering wheel of his Chrysler minivan, trying to take the turn slow. The roads were icy and the snowfall the night before hadn’t been fully cleaned up, making the morning commute treacherous.

“Dad, why do they say dead wrong when people don’t die when they are wrong?” Sehun kicked his legs, hitting the back of the driver’s seat. “Why is that?”

“It’s just a saying.”

“Dad, what’s a saying?” Sehun kicked harder.

Minseok griped the steering wheel and resolved to not scold the boy. It was a good thing he was so curious, just sometimes his curiosity came at really bad times. Like when Minseok had a forty five minute drive on ice and snow covered roads.

“Something people, um, say. That means something that it doesn’t sound like?” Minseok phrased it more like a question, he was pretty sure he had just delivered the worst explanation ever. Thankfully it seemed to satisfy the four year old in the back seat.

Minseok had watched the weather throughout the night plus checked it half a dozen times that morning. It wasn’t like it was going to change, so it was a fruitless task. He was just so nervous already, so afraid he would be late for something he absolutely could not be late for.

He had gotten Sehun dressed early that morning and set out a half an hour before he needed to. So far he was making good time, thank god.

“Dad?”

“Yes?”

“Why does it snow?”

“It is like rain, but when it is too cold the rain freezes.”

“Why does it rain?” Sehun started shifting in his seat, bouncing up and down.

“Evaporation. The air-“

“Dad, what is evaporation?”

“It snows because god is cold and he is crying,” Minseok blurted out, instantly regretting it.

“Dad, why is god sad?”

“Because he doesn’t like to be cold.”

“Oh.” Sehun accepted it. Another win.

They arrived at the hospital ten minutes early, after Sehun had been given the definition of frost, the reason tires are round, the reason he had to sit in a car seat, and if his Dad ever thought it would be better to be small like Sehun (being small is nice, but it is nice to be big too).

Minseok had his son halfway out of the car seat when his mother appeared. “Sehun, have you been good for your Dad?”

Sehun nodded vigorously, struggling to get down and run to his grandparents. Minseok was thankful they had agreed to watch the boy for the next week, even if it wasn’t a surprise they said yes. They adored their only grandchild. It was also a benefit they lived so near the hospital and offered to meet Minseok in the parking lot so he wouldn’t need to make an extra stop.

“Thanks mom.” Minseok received a half hug from his mother, he waved at his father who was busy being accosted by his grandson.

“No problem. Just please call. And good luck, I know everything will work out.”

“I hope so.” Minseok wished he could be as confident as his mother but after so much bad news in the last year it was hard to stay positive. Yet he never showed his doubt, not in front of Luhan. In front of his husband he stayed positive.

“Sehun, be good.” Minseok held his arms out wide, kneeling down he waited for his son to run into them. He hugged Sehun to him and peppered his face with kisses until he started to squirm to get away.

“Dad, tell Papa I love him too.”

“I will.” Minseok let the child go, one last ruffle of his hair before saying goodbye.

Minseok knew the steps to Luhan’s hospital room, the exact count it took to get from the main entrance up to room 502. He had counted them when he needed something to occupy him, some inane task for his tired mind.

1,647 steps.

He took 1,647 steps and was at Luhan’s bedside.

“Hey.” Luhan smiled up at him, reaching for his husband. No matter how sick Luhan was, how much the rest of him grew thin, pale, _different_ – his smile never faded.

Minseok leaned down and kissed his forehead, his cheeks, and his mouth. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Luhan’s grip was weak, a soft pressure on Minseok’s hand.

“Sehun says he loves you too.” Sehun had been in the room two days before, a day worked out carefully based on Luhan’s wishes. The surgery was a risky one and any goodbye could be the last. Luhan didn’t want Sehun to see him the day of.

Luhan let a tear fall and Minseok brushed it away. “Babe, it will work this time, I believe it.”

Luhan nodded, the tears continuing to fall.

They sat that way for an hour, tears, and small declarations to each other. Whispers and prayers. It wasn’t the first time Luhan had been wheeled into the operating room with an uncertain outcome but it never got easier.

Nurses came in and added medication to Luhan’s IV. The anesthesiologist visited for a quick rundown before the surgery. Finally the nurses were there to take Luhan to the operating room.

“I love you so, so much.” Minseok kissed his husband again, and again until he had to stop.

Three hours later a nurse appeared in the waiting room, asking for Minseok. He followed her back to a family waiting room. When he saw the doctor he knew the news wasn’t good, not when the surgery was supposed to take six hours. Not when he hadn’t been told of the results in the waiting room like he had every other time.

“I’m sorry, his heart stopped. We made every effort to resuscitate-“

Minseok didn’t hear the rest of what the doctor said. The speech about doing all they could, about being so sorry for his loss. Minseok had no idea how he could keep on going without Luhan, how he would explain it to Sehun, or how it was reality – he would never see Luhan alive again.

 

 

Minseok told his son the next day. He asked him to sit on the couch at Minseok’s parent’s house, while Minseok kneeled in front of him. Sehun knew something was wrong, he was observant, he knew Minseok’s moods - he knew when his father was upset.

He explained it as best he could, having already looked at the pamphlet the hospital gave him describing how best to tell a child their parent had passed away.

Sehun remained silent while Minseok slowly explained. Minseok tried not to cry but it was impossible.

“Dad?” Sehun’s voice was missing its boisterous quality, its energy. They had warned that the child might not understand, probably wouldn’t understand what death meant. He was too young to fully grasp the concept. He wasn’t crying but he wasn’t his usual hyper self.

“Yeah?” Minseok wiped his tears.

“It isn’t because he is cold.”

“What?” Minseok was confused.

“God isn’t sad because he is cold.” Sehun pointed towards the large bay window. Minseok hadn’t even realized it had started snowing. “He is sad because Papa was sick and now he is never going to wake up.”

Minseok was unable to say anything, to refute it or confirm it or provide some explanation that made sense. He hugged his son to him, shutting his eyes tightly. Shutting out the sight of snow and everything Sehun thought it meant.

 


	6. Prompt 7: I Laugh You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is a commonly held belief that you only laugh once you meet your soul mate. Luhan is out to prove the theory wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Prompt #7](http://dailyxiuhanisms.tumblr.com/post/140220643587/7)

“Better than if they made us cry.” Junmyeon made that face - that _think about it, you know I am right_ face.

“Even better, we can laugh and cry and it doesn’t have anything to do with some antiquated notion.” Luhan took a bite of his apple, chewing loudly as he waited for Junmyeon’s comeback.

As far as Luhan could reason, there was absolutely no benefit to the way things were now.

“How is it antiquated when it is true? Perhaps the explanation is antiquated, but it is a fact. You won’t laugh until you meet your soulmate. No one ever has laughed before that point and no one ever will.”

“That is the part that is antiquated!” Luhan let a chunk of apple fly out of his mouth as he protested. “How do we know it has anything to do with soulmates?! What if it is about friendship or maybe just some genetic thing? Why does it have to be about love?”

“Fine, then come up with a theory that explains all of the happy relationships made when people finally laugh.” Junmyeon leaned back in the cheap plastic cafeteria chair. He folded his arms together and challenged his co-worker.

“So you want me to find people who are miserable after they laugh? Fine, challenge accepted.” Luhan was never one to back down, especially not when Junmyeon was the one challenging him. The pair had been co-workers, both tenured professors in the sociology, for the last seven years.

“I can’t wait to see what you find. No one even bothers to try to disprove it anymore, Luhan. There is a reason for that.”

“Prepare to have all your theories turned upside down.” Luhan grabbed his lunch tray, ignoring the students who were looking his way. They should be used to heated words between the two professors, it happened at least once a week.

“Luhan, if you prove centuries - no, thousands of years of belief wrong - I will be the first one to throw you a party.”

Luhan would take him up on that offer, with bells on.

 

 

 

Luhan hated the sound of laughter. Shrill cackles, frivolous giggles, deep and booming chuckles - all of it was annoying to him. The only people who laughed were the same ones that bought into what they had been told from birth. And people said happiness and laughter were related. Pfft, more like laughter and being ignorant were related.

He announced his new project at the next department meeting. Zhang Yixing, the department head, gave it the green light as long as Luhan kept up with his classroom responsibilities. With the approval he needed to begin work, Luhan sat down and formulated a strategy. He needed test subjects, the more the merrier.

 

 

 

Two months later Luhan had located exactly zero people that had begun to laugh and not married the person who had prompted the original fit of hilarity. The societal belief was so strong it almost seemed like an impossible task, so he decided to go about it a different way. Instead of actively searching for those who did not end up with the source of their laughter he found those who did and sat them down for a very thorough interview.

The only problem with this new approach was the sheer volume of people willing to be interviewed. Luhan was only one person, plus he had classes to teach. He was a control freak by nature so it was hard to consider asking someone to help him. He was adamantly against finding a research assistant until he overheard Junmyeon telling Jongdae, another professor at the school, how little Luhan had accomplished in the last few months. Luhan was fuming and more determined than ever.

Bizarrely enough, he found his assistant in one of Junmyeon’s classes. The graduate students were all given a chance to apply if they wished. Three students showed interest, two were when they threw out more than one excuse when faced with late night hours and coming in on weekends. That left one candidate, who promptly became Luhan’s assistant.

His name was Kim Minseok and he was in his last year of graduate school. He was a few years younger than Luhan, an academic late starter, but carried himself like he was older. Quiet, unassuming, and amazing at following directions, Minseok was everything Luhan could have hoped for in an assistant.

Most importantly, perhaps, of all was that he shared Luhan’s belief. “I don’t think people should get married because they laugh. If you approach the situation analytically it is perhaps the least data supported model of social behavior known.”

Needless to say, Luhan _really_ liked Minseok.

 

 

They spent four months gathering interview from people of all walks of life. Truck drivers, stay at home parents, executives, gas station attendants, small business owners, and a couple of people with net worth over a million dollars. Each interview question was carefully selected to elicit a quick response in an effort to mitigate planned answers.

“I think we have a good sample size,” Luhan announced one Saturday afternoon. “We should stratify the answers and analyze the patterns.”

Minseok nodded enthusiastically. He was tasked with inputting the answers into a statistical software program. He went to work, entering the last few interview that they had finished up earlier in the day.

Luhan sat at his desk, listening to the plunk plunk plunk of the keyboard as Minseok typed. It was an even rhythm, in some strange way soothing to hear. Much better sounding than when most people typed, Luhan thought.

 

Luhan hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep lately, with keeping up with his classes on top of working on his research project. Sure Minseok helped him but Luhan insisted on checking and rechecking everything. Perhaps it was his exhaustion that made him say it.

“Minseok?”

Minseok stopped typing. Spinning in the office chair he turned around to face the professor.

“I like the way you type.” Luhan paused. “I guess you could say you are my type.”

Luhan gasped as a strange thing happened to him, a physical reaction that made him instantly fear that he was in the midst of a heart attack. His face felt oddly tight as his mouth opened. Something - was it air - was leaving him as an unholy sound escaped his lips. He clasped his hands over his mouth and doubled over, but it wouldn’t stop.

It took him a few seconds to realize he wasn’t alone. Minseok was making a noise, a terrifyingly...delightful noise.

Luhan sat up with a start. He stared into his assistant’s eyes, the man stared back.

“Did you just-”

“I think so.” Minseok looked completely dumbfounded. “Does that mean -”

“No! Back to looking at the data. Let’s pretend it never happened!” Luhan whirled around and buried his head in the nearest book. He hoped it would never happen again.

 

 

 

They began avoiding each other. Minseok would come in right after class while Luhan made a point to never show up until he was certain the other man had left. They communicated through email, Luhan petrified that someday he might see a smiley emoji or something horrendous that would remind him of that day. But he didn’t, everything was professional, no mention of “ _the incident_ ”.

They worked like that though the summer, doing more interviews, compiling more data, unhappy with their earlier results.

As autumn and a new school year rolled around Luhan found himself staring at pages of results that went against everything he thought possible. People who laughed were happy, and people only laughed after they met what they thought was their soulmate.

_“Professor, I hate to admit it, but I believe our hypothesis has been proven false.”_

Luhan deleted the email from Minseok and pounded his fist on his desk. Never would he let Junmyeon win! Never!

 

 

The next day Luhan entered his office, and just like he had for months he did so at a time he knew Minseok would be absent. It had worked like that for a while. Perhaps Luhan had started to let his guard down, had started to get sloppy, because when he walked into his office and saw Minseok seated at his desk he cried out in alarm.

“Hello professor.” Minseok didn’t seem as upset to see him. Luhan composed himself.

“Minseok, what did you need to see me fo-”

Luhan turned around to see Junmyeon standing in the doorway. They exchanged a tense look.

“Right on time! Professor, as part of our study I wanted to personally ask you, have you ever laughed?” Minseok titled his head, the picture of an inquisitive student.

Junmyeon’s expression soured. “No, I- have never laughed before.”

“That is too bad. I wonder if your laugh would be as nice as Luhan’s.”

Junmyeon widened his eyes. “You have laughed?!”

Luhan’s mouth had dropped open. He flashed Minseok a puzzled look. Why would he admit Luhan laughed, especially to Junmyeon?

“I am jealous, truly.” Junmyeon sounded dead serious.

“Well, I didn’t want to brag or anything.” Luhan puffed out his chest.

“Who was it that made you laugh?” Junmyeon prodded.

“No one. If you recall, I do not believe in such nonsense as soulmates.”

Junmyeon asked about how it felt, how wonderful it was, and how it affected Luhan’s project - rambling on for twenty minutes. He only left when Luhan told him that he had to discuss something private with Minseok.

“Why did you do that?”

“Because you are happy when you one up Junmyeon.” Minseok shrugged.

“That is true.” Luhan narrowed his eyes at his assistant. “Why do you care what makes me happy?”

“Hm, well, judging by the eight bazillion words I entered in this software, you are my soul mate. Or at least someone who will make me very happy. I thought it was best I do the same. Professor, all of the data is supporting this conclusion.”

“I don’t want to give up the research!” Luhan wasn’t going to give in, not now, not ever.

“Oh, well, suit yourself.” Minseok grabbed his jacket and laptop bag.

Luhan blurted it out. “I already am.”

Minseok stopped. Bag hanging off his arm he gave Luhan a confused look.

“I- am already suited, as you can see.” Luhan gestured to his brown tweed suit. “So I don’t need to do it again.”

Minseok burst out laughing, and Luhan – as much as he fought it – did the same.

 

 

“Professor, is it true that they got married the day the article was published?” The student held up Junmyeon’s least favorite issue of _The Journal of Sociology_.

“Yes, that is true.” Junmyeon sighed.

“And it is true that they were the first people to definitely link happiness to laughter, correct? And Professor Lu used to teach here?!” The student gestured towards the magazine.

“Yes, that is also true.”

“Wow, how amazing!”

Junmyeon held his tongue. He didn’t see anything amazing about it. What was so great about laughter anyway? Lately he was of the firm opinion he could go the rest of his life without it.

 

 

 

 

 

 


	7. Prompt 8: An Autumn Sound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Autumn is Minseok's favorite time of year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Prompt #8](http://dailyxiuhanisms.tumblr.com/post/140288094752/prompt-8-posted-1210-pm-pst-gmt-8)

Minseok pushed his foot into the grass and instantly recoiled, taken aback by how warm the ground felt. Autumn was nearly over, a chill was in the air, but the world was still too hot for his liking. He had emerged from his home the night before, right after the first frost of the year. A cold front drawing him out before it passed.

As happened every few years, the first frost was not permanent. A taste of what was to come but not a steady state. It was enough to awaken him from his slumber, to drag him from his home to prepare for what was to come. A sign his work was near.

It was, as his fellow frost faeries liked to remind him, his favorite time of the year.

“Luhan should still be awake,” Wheein would poke Minseok in the arm, a smile plastered on her face as she delighted in his embarrassment.

“Off to see Luhan?” Hoya, the second in command of the frost kingdom, would yell across the courtyard the second Minseok made an appearance.

He could deal with the teasing, the jokes, the jabs and poor attempts at humor because they meant well. Frost faeries were rumored to be cold but they were anything but. Deep down they were warm, especially to each other.

Minseok watched as leaves fell from the trees, adding to the burst of oranges and reds that coated the warm grass. Soon he would help cover the leaves in snow, using his power to bathe the world in white. By then Luhan would be gone, just like every year before. His work would be done as Minseok’s work began. And when the snows stopped, Minseok would be asleep - before Luhan had a chance to fully awake.

They had first met soon after humans had started to forge tools of iron, working metal over fire to create strange instruments that had little meaning to the faerie. It was a happy accident when they crossed paths, a start to something that spanned centuries.

“Were you waiting long?”

Luhan had a habit of sneaking up on people – humans, faeries, even the little spry gnomes that darted between the trees.

“Hey.” The breath Minseok had been holding came out as steam, his sapphire colored eyes fixed on the beautiful summer faerie before him. “I just got here.”

Luhan was everything a frost faerie was not. He was warm, his eyes a golden brown. His hair was honey colored, his skin possessed a glow. He carried life with him, in every move, every smile. While Minseok made the world go to sleep Luhan caused it to awaken.

The summer faerie sat on the wooden bench, a manmade contraption that Minseok favored for one reason – it kept his feet off the warm ground.

“I was lulling the oaks to sleep.” Luhan dragged his hand through his messy locks. “Though I dare say they want to stay up well past their time this year.”

“Shouldn’t you be leaving that to me?” Minseok couldn’t help but smile when he was around Luhan. No matter what inane thing they were discussing it made Minseok happy. It was unequivocally his favorite pastime - watching the summer faerie smile, listening to him as he rambled about how the tulips refused to move earlier that year, or questioning why the pines dismissed his attempts at talking them into a seasonal cycle.

“Then what should I do? Stand around until I have to sleep?” Luhan scooted over until his arm was touching Minseok’s. “I like to stay busy.”

“I can think of other things you could do.” Minseok mumbled. He wasn’t normally shy, not unless he was talking to Luhan. It had been going on for hundreds of years, this bashful flirting during the last days of autumn. An act with a desired end, a well-rehearsed interaction that they both came back to every year, as hungry as they had been the year before.

“What would that be?” Luhan always played along, pretending not to know, not to feel the same way.

“A frost faerie is a sluggish creature by nature.” Minseok cleared his throat. “And a summer faerie is full of life.”

“That is true.” Luhan was smiling, that devastatingly blinding smile.

“Perhaps you could wake me up?” Minseok turned his head, an expectant look on his face. It was the same line he had used for the last five decades, after he had finally retired ‘ _The summer is hot, the winter is cold, but this is autumn. Should we perhaps see if we can make each other warm?_ ’ He still cringed when he thought back to the century and a half he had uttered those words.

“And how would I do that?” Luhan moved his face closer, his warm breath hitting Minseok’s cold face. It was a delightful tickle against his frozen skin.

Minseok’s gaze fell to Luhan’s lips. “Perhaps if our bodies touched a little more…”

“Like this?” Luhan raised his hand to rest on the side of Minseok’s face, cupping his cheek.

“I am so tired.” Minseok mocked a yawn.

“Does this help?” Luhan turned his body, wrapping his other arm around Minseok’s waist.

“Not enough.” Minseok smirked.

“Or this?” Luhan pressed his lips to Minseok’s, their kiss a mix of cold and hot, summer and winter, life and death.

Minseok parted his lips, wanting more. Luhan obliged, slotting their mouths together as he licked into Minseok’s mouth.

When they parted, a small cloud of steam escaped.

“How do you feel now?” Luhan caressed Minseok’s cheek then moved his hand to the winter faerie’s neck, lightly caressing his ice cold skin.

“A little better, but still tired.” Minseok lifted his eyebrows in challenge.

“Let’s see what I can do.” Luhan laughed as he lowered Minseok onto the wooden bench, his hands and mouth meeting the challenge.

Without a doubt, it was Minseok’s favorite time of year. Autumn, a time when summer and winter could meet, even if it was only for a few brief days.


End file.
